The Osteo

"If you want to know what your experiences were like in the past, examine your body now. If you want to know what your body will look like in the future examine your experiences now." ~ Ancient Proverb

Society as a whole is astoundingly disconnected from the Earth and from ourselves, as human beings. As an individual, I have wholeheartedly neglected myself emotionally, spiritually and - most pronounced - physically. For years upon years. Oh, there were some good moments in there....I distinctly remember being in the best shape of my life in 2005 when I was hitting the gym, swimming, and kickboxing. I must have had a lobotomy or something that year because to say that was "out of character" is a gross understatement. I have been prone to laziness. A lot of the time. To say the least.

Given my sometimes lazy attitude and my tendency to relish eating chocolate, Thai food, pop (oh, how I love Pepsi), and the worst offender - Bailey's - the last few years have not been kind to my body and my age is now changing my ability to drop 5lbs in one week. Now, I actually need to work at it. Besides that, I experience pain in various parts of my body....not like requiring pain management pain, but more aches and pains than I likely should have at 33. And headaches. And stress. And, I smoke, so knock a couple hundred years off my life expectancy for that evil-doing. Oh, and I did some drugs over the years and pickled myself with alcohol. Basically, I'm fucked.

A couple months ago, my BFF was telling me about her recent experience with visiting an Osteopath, which was extremely positive and she immediately saw results. An Osteopath falls under alternative medicine and basically they look at the relationship between structure and function of the body. It's a holistic approach that believes they body holds the power to heal itself through making connections between the body, mind and spirit. Not exactly the same as western medicine, eh? I have been working with my doctor (GP) for some years now and, although I like her and think she is competent, she is a medical practitioner and is limited in her ability to step outside of the medical model and look at someone as a whole person. Over the past some months (no, wait...years) I've been experiencing a lot of stress in relation to my workplace; it's a complicated story that I won't get in to. As a result, I have developed issues that I have assumed were stress related and the advice my GP gives me is to "just find a new job." Outside of that, no tests have been performed, no further exploration into matters.

I have always been one that is open to experiencing different ways of working through problems and I have participated in acupuncture, therapy, yoga, and attempted meditation at various points in my life. For me to explore seeing an Osteopath isn't really that out of the ordinary. I had no idea what I was in for and I am so glad I went as the things I have learned are crazy. I now affectionately refer to my Osteopath as my "witch doctor" and he doesn't seem to mind. My witch doctor is originally from the UK and is unassuming, gentle and kind. Apparently, he is very good at picking up on the energies of others and, upon first meeting him I left him feeling very "scrambled." Not shocking if you know me. His education is both in Osteopathy and Naturopathy and he brings philosophies and techniques from both into his work. He is a very cool guy. Seeing an Osteo is a distinctly different experience than any I've had utilizing western medical practices from the moment you walk into the beautifully calming office to the examination process to what you are prescribed (not meaning medication). From what I've discovered, it's one of those things that you just need to go with and, quite likely if you over think it, you will fail to benefit wholly from the experience. It's so outside of our experience with western medicine that it is easily dismissed and, if I had not been open to meeting with my witch doctor and wasn't prepared to listen to what he had to say.....well, nothing would have changed, I guess.

Things have changed and my body is starting to heal. And because my body is starting to heal, aspects of my emotional and mental self are also starting to heal. Thank you Osteo. The things we discovered about my physical self were profound to me. May be not to others, but to me. They were profound because once we started working on them, I felt so totally better that I literally could not believe it. It was so simple. My witch doctor has said that there are things - aliments that we just learn to live with as humans, such as headaches, bloating, anxiety, back problems, etc. However, we don't have to live with these things and, in fact, they are startlingly easy to fix. Over the past two months or so, I have discovered that I am intolerant to Gluten, my thyroid was not functioning properly and I had a parasite (gulp). Yes, a parasite. A fucking parasite. Like a worm thing? Yes, like a worm thing. How my GP never explored any of these things, given the symptomology I reported, I will never know because they seem pretty damn significant if you ask me.